Impenetrable wall element

ABSTRACT

An integral wall formation for fruit and vegetables containers made of plastic has an outer surface having a plurality of longitudinally extending outer legs wherein adjacent legs define outer apertures therebetween. An inner surface has a plurality of longitudinally extending inner legs wherein adjacent inner legs define inner apertures therebetween. At least a majority of the inner apertures are staggered with respect to the outer apertures and in combination therewith form openings in regular arrangement for airing goods stored in the container. At least one crossbar extends transversely to and is adjoined with the inner legs and outer legs.

The present invention relates to bottom and side wall formationsaccording to the preamble of claim 1.

A problem in the transport of perishable goods, for example fruit andvegetables, is the discrepancy between the lightness of the transportcontainers, which is generally obtained by an open bottom and side wallstructure, and protection of the contained goods from damage. The maindanger is of the contained goods being damaged from the outside, inparticular in the case of fruit and vegetables, since when woodencontainers or crates are interlocked in a stack for example, splinterscan penetrate through the open structure of the side or bottom walls andenter the transported goods, making them unfit for sale, which can meana considerable financial loss. A further problem with prior artcontainers is that the open formation of the bottom and side wallsusually obtained by a crosswise arrangement of slats involves a latentdanger of injury, since human extremities, e.g. fingers, can very easilybe pinched and sprained during handling and transport when they get intoone of the openings in the side or bottom walls during lifting, movingor stacking.

The problem of the present invention is to provide a side or bottom wallformation for transport containers or the like which has little weightdue to an open structure, on the one hand, while preventing penetrationof foreign bodies, on the other hand. Furthermore the side or bottomwall formation should be both stable and easy and economical to produce,and have a pleasing appearance to the eye.

According to the invention a side or bottom wall formation for boxes andcontainers, in particular plastic fruit and vegetable containers, isprovided which has openings in preferably regular arrangement for airingthe goods. The openings are limited by bars having legs at each end anddisposed generally side by side a small distance apart. The connectionof two legs by the bar thus results in a section, e.g. an I, S, T or Zshape, that limits the openings and is easy to produce by forming andpermits very effective stiffening of the wall formation. The legs, whichare preferably disposed in the planes of the sides of the side or bottomwall, are staggered so that, in a horizontal projection of the wallformation, the legs of one side are located in the area of the gapsbetween the legs of the other side, thereby preventing both a lookthrough and penetration by objects at right angles to the superficialextension of the wall formation. As a result, at least some butpreferably all openings have two laterally staggered aperture crosssections.

The section legs disposed side by side a small distance apart yield asmooth outside and inside surface of the wall formation which is gentleon the goods to be received, is easy to clean and produces a quietexternal appearance. Since the section bars with their section legspermit a smooth formation of the inside and outside surfaces of the wallformation, the section legs disposed side by side a small distance apartoffer a good labeling or printing surface so that the inventive wallformation also permits simple marking.

The side-by-side arrangement of the sections resulting from the legs andthe connecting bars forms preferably labyrinthine openings therebetween,which favors the ventilation of the goods received in a container havingthe inventive wall formation. The labyrinthine nature of the openings inthe wall formation, or the lateral stagger of the aperture crosssections, prevents objects from penetrating therethrough so that thecontained goods are protected. Furthermore the inventive section barsresult in a considerable stiffening of the wall formation in thedirection of extension of the sections since the latter show highflexural strength with low use of material. To obtain stiffness in thewall formation direction perpendicular to the extension of the sectionsas well, the adjacent sections are preferably interconnected by crossbars which are preferably disposed at right angles to the extension ofthe sections themselves.

Since the sections show much higher flexural strength in comparison toprior art slats with a solid section, one can obtain a considerablesaving of material with equal or greater stiffness of the wall formationhere in comparison to solid sections, which contributes both to thelightness of the container in which the wall formation is used, and to asaving of resources.

The side-by-side arrangement of the sections, or the staggeredarrangement of the section legs on both sides of the wall formation,furthermore results in good mold releasability of the wall formatione.g. if the latter is made of plastic. The mold seams are located on theinside, resulting in an advantageous external appearance of the wallformation which can contribute considerably to the acceptance ofcontainers having such wall formations.

Depending on the case of application one can use an arrangement ofsections in both the longitudinal and the transverse directions of thesuperficial extension of a side or bottom wall formation, or atilt-symmetric arrangement of sections with respect to a surface tiltingaxis in the longitudinal or transverse direction, or a uniformarrangement of sections in one direction of extension of a wallformation. Tilt symmetry means that the openings of the wall formationhalves would come to lie exactly on each other if the halves were tiltedaround a longitudinal or transverse center axis.

The inventive wall formation is suitable not only as a side or bottomwall formation for a transport container but also as a separating bottomfor separating stacked layers or as an insertable bottom.

The inventive wall formation can be employed in particular as anintegral wall and/or bottom element of a container producible fromplastic by injection molding, in particular for vegetable or fruitcontainers which are formed of four rectangularly disposed side wallsand a bottom.

In the following a preferred embodiment of the invention will bedescribed with reference to the enclosed drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a horizontal projection of an embodiment of the wallformation as a container wall;

FIG. 2 shows cross section II--II according to FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a fragmentary cross section of a wall segment havingI-shaped laterally extending sections;

FIG. 4 shows a fragmentary cross section of a wall segment havingT-shaped laterally extending sections;

FIG. 5 shows a fragmentary cross section of a wall segment havingS-shaped laterally extending sections;

FIG. 6 shows a fragmentary cross section of a wall segment havingtilt-symmetrical sections;

FIG. 7 shows a cross section of a container with a wall segmentseparating the container contents; and

FIG. 8 shows a container comprising walls and a bottom formed from wallsegments according to the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 1 shows a horizontal projection of an embodiment of an impenetrablewall formation, here a container wall by way of example. The upper sideof wall formation 1 is formed by section legs 2a disposed side by side asmall distance apart so as to form a smooth outside surface which iseasy to clean and shows an esthetic, quiet external appearance. Throughspaces 3 between adjacent section legs 2a one can see section legs 2bwhich are disposed on the underside of the wall formation precisely inthe area of spaces 3, thereby preventing a look through and penetrationby objects through the wall formation. At right angles to the extensionof section legs 2a and 2b there are four cross bars 4 in the embodimentshown in FIG. 1 which interconnect section legs 2a and 2b in thedirection of the longitudinal extension of the wall formation. Insteadof four cross slats 4 shown in this embodiment one can also use adifferent number of cross slats depending on the size and application ofthe wall formation. Instead of the rectangular form of the wallformation with round corners as shown in this embodiment one can alsouse any other form, such as round, oval or the like, the form dependingmerely on the intended purpose as a side wall, bottom wall orintermediate bottom and on the type and form of the container in whichit is used.

FIG. 2 shows cross section II--II according to FIG. 1. One again seessection legs 2a and 2b which define the upper and lower superficialextension of the wall formations, two corresponding section legs of theupper side and underside of the embodiment being interconnected by bar2c so that legs 2a and 2b and connecting bars 2c yield a section whichis Z-shaped in this embodiment but may also be I-, T- or S-shaped. FIGS.3-5, respectively, or tilt-symmetrical sections, FIG. 6. As evident fromFIG. 2, sections 2 disposed side by side a small distance apart resultin a structure which permits the passage of ventilating air but nopenetration by objects through the spaces between adjacent sections 2.Sections 2 are interconnected by cross bars 4 disposed at right anglesto the extension of sections 2. The high flexural strength of sections 2results in high stability of the wall formation in the direction ofsections 2 with a very low use of material as well as great lightness ofthe wall formation. The flexural strength in the longitudinal directionof the embodiment is obtained by the interconnection of sections 2 withthe help of cross bars 4, resulting in a high total stability of thewall formation which also makes it suitable for use as walls and bottomsin stackable containers 6, (FIG. 8) or the like and as a stacking orseparating element (FIG. 7) between layers 8 of fruit or vegetables in acontainer 7.

As likewise evident from FIG. 2, in the shown embodiment sections 2 aredisposed tilt-symmetrically to the longitudinal center of thisembodiment, which greatly contributes to the esthetic appearance of thewall formation, this being very important for the acceptance of acontainer having such wall formations by intended user circles. Howeverthis type of tilt-symmetric arrangement of sections 2 can be replaced byan arrangement in the same direction throughout without basicallyaltering the function of the wall formation.

Depending on the application one can finally use a longitudinalarrangement of sections 2 instead of a transverse arrangement thereof,whereby cross slats 4 connecting sections 2 are accordingly aligneddifferently in connection with the shown embodiment.

The parallel arrangement of sections 2 as in the embodiment contributesfurthermore to easy cleaning of the wall formation, which is veryimportant particularly when the wall formation is used in reusablecontainers whose appearance must remain perfect after repeated use.Finally the wall formation according to the shown embodiment permitseasy mold release if it is made from plastic, as is preferred, wherebythe mold seams point inward and thus do not disturb the externalappearance or involve any danger of injury by cuts.

I claim:
 1. An integral wall formation for boxes and containers, saidwall formation comprising:an outer surface having a plurality oflongitudinally extending outer legs wherein adjacent ones of said outerlegs define outer apertures therebetween: an inner surface having aplurality of longitudinally extending inner legs wherein adjacent onesof said inner legs define inner apertures therebetween, and furtherwherein at least a majority of said inner apertures are staggered withrespect to said outer apertures and in combination form openings inregular arrangement for airing goods stored in the container; and atleast one crossbar extending across said inner and outer apertures andtransversely to and adjoined with said inner legs and said outer legs.2. The wall formation of claim 1, characterized in that the laterallystaggered apertures overlap each other.
 3. The wall formation of claim1, characterized in that the openings are formed as labyrinthinepassages.
 4. The wall formation of claim 1, characterized in that theopenings are limited laterally by connecting bars which are formed assections with said legs.
 5. The wall formation of claim 4, characterizedin that the section legs formed at one end of the bars form the innersurface of the wall formation, and the section legs formed at the otherend of the bars form the outside surface thereof.
 6. The wall formationof claim 5, characterized in that the inside surface legs and outsidesurface legs of the bars form smooth inside and outside surfaces.
 7. Thewall formation of claim 4, characterized in that the bars are formed asa cross section selected from the group consisting of S-, Z-, I-, andT-sections.
 8. The wall formation of claim 4, characterized in that thebars are disposed parallel to each other at a small distance, and theinside surface leg of a bar is located in the area of the space betweenthe outside surface leg of this bar and that of an adjacent section andcovers the latter.
 9. The wall formation of claim 1, characterized inthat the sections are disposed tilt-symmetrically to one of the surfacecenter axes.
 10. The wall formation of claim 4, characterized in thatthe bars are disposed parallel to each other.
 11. The wall formation ofclaim 4, characterized in that said at least one crossbar comprises aplurality of crossbars.
 12. A wall formation for the construction ofcontainers for the storage and transport of fruit and vegetables whereinsaid wall formation comprises a generally rigid planar sheet ofpolymeric material having an outer perimeter of predetermined dimensionsand an inner portion defined by said perimeter, said inner portionhaving a first surface having a plurality of first apertures and asecond surface having a plurality of second apertures staggered fromsaid first apertures and in combination therewith defining a pluralityof openings therethrough for allowing air to flow to the fruit andvegetables, said openings separated by a plurality of connecting bars ofsaid rigid sheet, and further wherein said plurality of connecting barsdefine a majority of said openings such that each of said majority ofsaid openings includes one of said first apertures staggered from one ofsaid second apertures, and a crossbar separating said first surface fromsaid second surface and extending transversely to said connecting bars.